For some time now, it seems the same questions about money, credit cards and atm questions come up daily.
I thought I had it all covered. Especially when I found a local bank that had no atm fees. They eat any atm fee a bank would charge. I thought great!
Well, you learn something new each time all the questions come up. The bank I opened the account in has only STAR as their network.
I am assuming only STAR is not available in Europe?? So, the bank where I opened the account did not even know enough to tell me this? When I explicitly asked about using the atm features and fees in Europe? How dumb. People here know more about banking than the bank manager!
Anyway, so I am not totally stupid, my atm card at the local bank with only STAR network is worthless in Europe?
Thanks

Does your card have a Visa or MC logo? That might work.

Star, Cirrus and Plus are the three big networks with at least a dozen smaller ones.

I looked at the card I used last time. It has only a star logo (unless they sent me a new card and dropped some networks). It worked fine but it also carries the MC logo on the front.

Don't know where you're headed in Europe, but just about every ATM I've encountered in France and Italy had the STAR logo, and my ATM card, which has only STAR and PLUS logos on it, worked fine.

Yes, I believe it has mastercard. So, STAR alone does work in Europe? Well, that would be great! Someone on a thread here gave a link to STAR and it only listed US and Canada as its usable locations.

I advise caution here. I strongly suggest you have an alternate means to acquire spending money. Don't be 100% reliant on your new card for local currency.

The absence or presence of PLUS and STAR on ATM or check card is no assurance that a card will work overseas.

Here is my experience from last summer in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Scotland.

Being a somewhat reluctant Bank of America customer, and having a pet peeve about the $5.00 fee the bank charges for any off net use of its cash cards, I opened an account at a local Federal credit union that issued me a Master Card check card that bears the PLUS and STAR logos - the same as does my Bank of America ATM card.

I tried the credit union card in Arizona and Utah as well as at different local ATMs and had no trouble getting money.

I also used the card to withdraw euro from a bank in Germany without incident.

Then I got to Switzerland. Total Failure. The card would NOT access my account from any bank in Interlaken. I tried all of them, including such big banks as Credit Suisse and Raiffeisen.

As a result I either cashed a travelers check or two or I paid the $5.00 fee to Bank of America. At least I could use my B of A card to access my account.

When I got to Scotland the credit union card would work at some banks but not at others. Luckily one of the banks from which I could get money was the Bank of Scotland.

When I got home, I asked the manager of the credit union why the card failed. He had no idea.

I just hope my newly acquired Fidelity Investments check card works as advertised. It too has all the right labels on it for networks.

Being a huge investment company I hope that Fidelity's plastic will prove to be fully functional. The only doubt in my mind is that PNB manages the disbursement of currency and I don't know much about this particular bank.

I WILL of course have my Bank of America card along just in case.

With B of A, using my ATM card at Barclays in the UK or at Deutsche Bank in Germany incurs no extra charges because they are all in the same banking alliance. Unfortunately B of A has no associated bank in Switzerland.

At any rate, good luck in this game of ATM card roulette.

One reason i found once that my card would not work as well in Paris like other places in europe was i figured because the magnetic strip on my card was slightly worn and i theorized the ATMs in Paris may have been more sensitive or something - the card had always worked at home

In any case make sure your card has a pristine strip on the back

I just looked at the STAR website, and it only speaks of coverage in the USA. Visa and Mastercard debit/atm cards have websites where you can look up ATM locations in any village. Not so STAR.
Don't feel bad. The billing clerk at my dentist didn't know the difference between a debit (charge) and a credit on a credit card. Keep up the fair work! But these days one can't tell someone they've done a less than competent job.

I am pretty sure a star-only card will not work overseas, A star/plus card or a star/cirrus card will - but Star-only is a different matter.

Few cards are star-only -- mainly from small credit unions and banks. Most star cards do have Plus and/or Cirrus

A Star system ATM card will only work in the USA and Canada.
Plus and Cirrus are the two worldwide network systems.

Well, bank staff don't know anything, so whoever you talked to probably only knew the ATM fee remittal policy. They probably don't even know where STAR works and does not or how foreign charges even get transmitted -- I've talked to several agents at my bank who didn't know anything and who told me all kinds of erroneous information (relating to their own charges).

I've actually never had a bank card that really only had one network (mine has STAR and a couple others). It is possible it will work through some way the networks connect, I'm not sure (mine says STAR on my bank statement even when it was a foreign transaction, for example -- no, the bank couldn't explain that either since the STAR website claims it is only in Europe).

It's possible it will work, but I sure wouldn't count on it. Also, my bank had some other network that would work that wasn't printed on the back of my ATM card, either, so you never know.

Thanks all. It is a STAR only network card. I am so glad I found out about this now. I opened this account specifically because of the fact that they eat all atm fees from all banks. I thought that was great! Great only in Virginia I guess. It is a small town bank and so I am thinking about sucking it up and using the cards with fees. I did not want to take our regular atm card because my DH's check and everything gets deposited into it. I have another account and I checked today and they have STAR and Cirrus. So, I will take that one. Maybe I should open another account at a Bank of America bank or Wachovia...one of the bigger ones.
Thanks.

Before you open an account with members of "The Dark Side",check with other Credit Unions,USAA,or Schwab.They all offer better deals than any of the large money center banks.

If you are in an area where you can open an acct at Compass Bank, try them. They also do not charge fee for 'out of network use'. Their foreign conversion fee was 1% for ATM, and 2% for purchases using the 'debit' card.